Sofia, 7. September 2021: ManpowerGroup Bulgaria today announced the results of its Fourth COVID-19 Wave survey in which 185 companies and 366 employees from all business sectors and regions in Bulgaria share their expectations and concerns about a new pandemic-induced situation.

The data reveal that 61% of employers and 76% of employees expect certain sectors and functions to cease operations in the last quarter of the year. Information Technologies, Business Process Outsourcing, Consulting Services and Trade&FMCG sectors report the most optimistic forecasts (less than 5% of respondents) while Tourism, Hotels & Restaurants organizations (75%) and employees (50%) have the greatest concerns about a potential closure.

‘COVID-19 continues to dictate the business environment dynamics, and the difficulty to predict the outcomes of a new pandemic boom make, quite naturally, many companies and employees worry about the near future. The good news is that the majority of organizations in the country have already equipped themselves with different measures in the event of a temporary closure and are prepared to develop their business in a different direction, as well as reassign employees to alternative in-house projects or functions in order to keep their most valuable and scarce asset,’ said Maria Stoeva, Sales&Business Development Manager, ManpowerGroup Bulgaria.

Other survey highlights:

• In the event of closure, 31% of employers plan to put some or all teams on forced leave, 10% would lay off staff and only 6% are likely to reduce monthly salaries and additional benefits. Meanwhile, as many as 43% of surveyed employees believe that potential new measures induced by the spreading of Covid-19 can affect their income in the form of lower wages or fewer perks, one-third worry that they would be put on forced leave, and 30% fear they will lose their jobs.

• 60% of organizations plan to use a hybrid work model in the last quarter of the year. 12% will let their employees choose between work at the office, remotely or both, while 41% of workers want to decide for themselves whether and when to work at the office and/or remotely.

• 80% of surveyed companies cover home-based employee additional costs by providing office equipment (e.g. printers, scanners, office chairs), or reimbursing monthly internet subscription plans. Only but a few organizations cover other costs such as utility bills.

• 23% of companies that have incurred financial losses expect to see profits at their optimal level by the middle of 2022 and 15% believe that this will happen by the end of next year. Meanwhile, some 40% of surveyed employees share that they have not registered any negative impact on their job incomes and another 12% — that they have but these have already normalized.

• The majority of employers (62%) do not expect any significant changes in the number of employees until the end of the year while 24% plan to increase payroll by 5-10%. A quarter of them represent IT companies, 22% operate in the Manufacturing sector, and 15% — in the Trade&FMCG industry. Companies that share plans of staff increase by more than 10% are 7% of all surveyed employers, representatives mainly of the Healthcare&Pharma, Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technologies sectors.

You can find detailed Fourth COVID-19 Wave survey results here.

About ManpowerGroup Bulgaria

ManpowerGroup Bulgaria is part of ManpowerGroup South-East Europe Cluster and one of the leaders on the Bulgarian market in contingent and permanent recruitment solutions, staff assessment, RPO and career consulting. With branches in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna, ManpowerGroup Bulgaria has been providing organisations in the country with a continuum of staffing solutions for 12 years now, working with businesses from all industry sectors and giving them access to the people they need. In 2019 ManpowerGroup Bulgaria received special award “Recruitment Company with the Biggest Contribution to the Industry” from Automotive Cluster Bulgaria. Please find more information about ManpowerGroup Bulgaria at www.manpower.bg.